


Meeting the Asset

by queenmidalah



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 12:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2692772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenmidalah/pseuds/queenmidalah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite all he did to prevent it from happening, Grant Ward was not completely surprised when he found himself back in SHIELD's custody. He did not expect to be slammed, painfully, against the wall with a strong hand wrapped around his throat cutting off his air supply.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting the Asset

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from azaelle on Tumblr: Bucky (who liked Jemma for a long time) is really mad when he learned the way Ward treated Jemma and Bucky let him know.

Despite all he did to prevent it from happening, Grant Ward was not completely surprised when he found himself back in SHIELD's custody. He did not expect to be slammed, painfully, against the wall with a strong hand wrapped around his throat cutting off his air supply, or the voices that started yelling various demands or alerts.

"Barnes!" he heard Phil Coulson call.

"Bucky!" two voices said. One Ward recognized as Jemma Simmons, the other he had heard in passing a few times at SHIELD headquarters between missions. Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America.

Ward forced himself to focus on the face attached to the hand wrapped around his throat. He had heard of the Asset, but he had never met nor seen the man HYDRA had molded into the Winter Soldier. 

Despite all he had done and all he had faced as a deadly specialist himself, Ward felt genuine fear in the bit of his belly as he stared into the cold fury on the man's face. He could see in the man's eyes how he could so easily pull the sniper's trigger to take out a mark, or get up close and personal to slip the blade between his target's ribs to pierce their heart.

"Buck, let him go," Steve said, curling his fingers around the wrist that held Ward's throat. He saw his vision starting to narrow, feeling the pain behind his eyes as he was strangled by the man.

"Barnes!" Coulson yelled again.

"Bucky." The voice was gentle. Ward's eyes shifted and he saw Jemma's achingly lovely face come into view. He saw how she looked only at the Asset's face. One small hand came up to brush along his forearm, the touch forcing the man's cold, dead eyes to look away from Ward to the woman.

"He's not worth it," she said softly.

"He hurt you," he said. His tone was low, even, and it scared the shit out of Ward.

"Yes," Jemma said. Her voice was sad, hurt, but determined. "But this will hurt me more. If you kill him, it'll be another soul for you to bear. It pains me to know you blame yourself for so much, most of which was not of your doing."

"He hurt you," he said again. "He hurt Fitz."

"Yes, I know," Jemma said. Ward could feel the Asset's hand loosening on his throat some. 

"He's not worth another mark on your soul," Jemma continued. "He's a non-entity to me. To Fitz. To all of us. Death is too good for him after all he's done."

"People think that of me," the man murmured.

"You were brainwashed and had your memories wiped," Jemma said. "He's a sociopath with no remorse for the things he's done. Don't let that kind of soul leave a mark on yours."

Ward felt the fingers against his throat flexing before he was slammed once more, then released. He fell to the ground, gasping for air. He finally began to cough raggedly as he pulled air into his tortured lungs.

"Listen well, asshole," the man said. "I'm Bucky Barnes, but you probably know me as the Asset. You ever escape again and it'll be me coming after you and I'll break every bone in your body for what you did to Jemma and the rest of this team."

Ward lifted his head, face red from coughing. His eyes had watered from the intensity of the coughing fit, but he could see Bucky's face clearly. The man wasn't bluffing. He barely registered the fact that his escorts picked him up and hauled him off to his cell. He was too busy focusing on the fact that he knew if he ever stared death in the face again, he wouldn't survive it. That Bucky Barnes would make sure of it, because he would be his death.


End file.
